


Go be happy now

by apolloxbvcky



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes Recovering, F/M, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, POV Steve Rogers, Road Trips, Steve Rogers Feels, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:53:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23315695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apolloxbvcky/pseuds/apolloxbvcky
Summary: Steve smiles down at Bucky. This felt too much like a good bye. Probably, because it was.Steve had never been good at good byes. His first one was when he was still a kid, and he can’t remember it too well. His dad died of TB a few months after he was born, so he didn’t get the chance to say anything.Then it was his mom, of cancer, when he was 17. He refused to say good bye, and so did Sarah. They both knew it was going to happen sometime, but they played pretended.Then it was Bucky, twice, and it was like this the first time, but the second one, he wasn’t fast enough.Then Peggy, and he did the same thing he did with his mother... pretend.Then he woke up in the future, and it was Bucky again, and then Pietro Maximoff, and then half of his family, and Bucky again, and then half of the world, and Bucky once more, and Nat, and finally Tony.And he only got to say good bye once.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter/Daniel Sousa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	Go be happy now

**Author's Note:**

> something good had to come out of quarantine so... here it is. wrote most of this at 4am so sorry if there's something wrong. Hope you enjoy!

“Don’t do anything stupid till I get back.”  
Steve smiles down at Bucky. This felt too much like a good bye. Probably, because it was.  
Steve had never been good at good byes. His first one was when he was still a kid, and he can’t remember it too well. His dad died of TB a few months after he was born, so he didn’t get the chance to say anything.  
Then it was his mom, of cancer, when he was 17. He refused to say good bye, and so did Sarah. They both knew it was going to happen sometime, but they played pretended.  
Then it was Bucky, twice, and it was like this the first time, but the second one, he wasn’t fast enough.  
Then Peggy, and he did the same thing he did with his mother... pretend.  
Then he woke up in the future, and it was Bucky again, and then Pietro Maximoff, and then half of his family, and Bucky again, and then half of the world, and Bucky once more, and Nat, and finally Tony.  
And he only got to say good bye once.  
He’s not good at good byes, so he’s only repeating what he did once, many, many years ago.  
He knows Bucky enough to be sure he’ll get it.  
“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” Bucky replies, and it hurts a little.  
But Steve has to be strong, because he finally has a chance to rest, to live the life he wanted to live, with the woman he has loved for decades... He has to take this chance.  
He wants to take Bucky with him, Lord knows he wants to, but... he can’t bare the possibility of HYDRA finding him and taking him too, having two Bucky Barnes under their command.  
He’s better off in this century, with Sam, the other Avengers and the people of Wakanda taking care of him.  
It will hurt now, but in long shot, Bucky will understand. He’s smart enough.  
So they hug, and Steve hugs his best friend tight, because hell knows when he’ll see him again. He’s going rescue his Bucky, but it can take him months, maybe even years...  
Bucky breaks the hug apart and Steve takes the case with the Stones and the Mjolnir and steps on the machine.  
He activates the suit and closes his eyes. In few seconds, he’s in New York, and it’s 2012, and there’s a hoard of Chitauris falling from the sky.

He looks around, and sees he’s in a flat roof.  
“Welcome, Captain.” he hears, and turns back, seeing a bald woman dressed in yellow smiling at her.  
“Hi. I guess you must be the Ancient One.” she smiles and nods.  
“And I guess you must have something for me.” she says.  
Steve nods and opens the case, revealing the Stones. The Ancient One slightly opens her eyes, and looks at him.  
“I’m very old, and yet... This is the first time I’ve ever seen the Stones all together in the same place.” she smiles, softly, before gesturing with her hands; making the Time Stone fly towards her eye-shaped necklace. “Well, you must return the others. Perhaps I can take care of the Mind Stone, too, since you took it from this time as well. It’ll save time.”  
“Time is the only thing I can waste at the moment, ma’am. But yes, it’d be helpful.”  
The woman nods, and repeats the gestures she did before — only this time, the Stone keeps floating above her right hand.  
“Well now, Captain, you must return the other Stones. I’m quite sure the Reality one will take you some... effort.” she smiles, and Steve nods, pressing on her suit and waving good bye to the woman.

Not even a wink later, he’s in Asgard.  
He had never been in this place, and if he has to be honest, Thor’s narrations make no justice to the place itself.  
He feels as if he was in the fanciest place in the universe , what with all the high columns and paintings on the ceiling. He’d know, after all, he’s the one who studied Fine Arts for a while.  
He’s not sure where Jane Foster could be, so he lets his instincts guide him.  
As soon as he spots Queen Freya, he starts to follow her. After what must have been ten minutes, he feels like he has being walking in circles, and he can’t spot the Queen anymore.  
He’s about to turn back and start searching on his own, when he feels someone grab his arm and twist it against his back.  
“Who are you and why are you following me?” the Queen asks.  
Well, great. He groans, and breaks free from the Queen’s hold.  
“My name is Steve Rogers.” he says. “I’m a friend of Thor’s. And I’m here to...”  
“Bring the Stone back?” she asks. Steve nods. Then, Freya notices something and frown.  
“You can wield it.” she says. Steve looks down to his left hand, holding the hammer.  
“Uh, yeah. He doesn’t know yet, though.” he smiles. Steve didn’t know either by 2013, but he remembers the night Ultron first appeared, when Thor dared them all to pick it up, and Steve then realized he could but decided to play a little with Thor and prank him some other time.  
Instead, destiny decided the perfect moment for him to do so was as his friend was being beaten to death by Thanos.  
The moment was still pretty cool, though.  
He wondered if Bucky had seen it; if he knew what that meant. Too bad he’d never know.  
“They just left.” Freya said, snapping him back to reality. “My son and the raccoon, I mean. Jane is still unconscious, so we can put the Stone back in her before she wakes up.”  
“Great. That’s... great. Thank you.”  
They walk through a door to their left and in few minutes, the Reality Stone is back in Jane’s body. Steve leaves the Mjolnir beside her bed, and looks at Freya, who’s smiling at him.  
“I know Thor already tried to tell you this, but-“ he starts, but Freya cuts him.  
“I know. As I told him, I was raised by witches... I already know. Still, if that’s what Faith has decided for me, so be it. I may be a goddess in your eyes, but that doesn’t mean I’m allowed to meddle with her decisions.” she explains.  
Steve frowns, and then nods. “I should be going.” he says.  
“Yes, you should. Be careful, my child. You still have a few adventures left.”  
Steve smiles at her before pressing on his suit once again, and now, it’s 2014 and he’s in Vormir.

“Steve Rogers, son of Sarah and Joseph.” he hears. Turning back, he sees a black cloak floating on the air, but as he walks closer, he discovers Red Skull’s face beneath it. He frowns.  
“Schmidt. Son of a bitch.” he replies.  
“I’m not Johann Schmidt anymore. I lost that the moment I took hold of the Tesseract. Now I’m just the Stone guardian.” he says. Steve shakes his head. This isn’t worth it. His anger towards Schmidt died a long time ago. He ignores him, walking towards the edge of the cliff. “I’m sorry to inform you, Captain Rogers, that the Stone is no longer here.”  
“Yeah. I know that.” he says, opening the case. Carefully, he picks up the Stone, then looks at Red Skull. “This will bring her back, right?”  
“I cannot provide you of that answer.”  
Steve closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and throws the Stone down the cliff.  
There’s a sudden burst of light, and the next thing he knows is that he’s surrounded by water.  
He sits up abruptly, and coughs, and then he feels two hands on his face. He opens his eyes and sees Natasha in front of him.  
Quickly, he puts his arms around her and hugs her tight.  
“Wow, careful, beast.” she says, and giggles. He looks up at her, and then smiles. She smiles back. “You know I really do like you, Rogers; but... why are you here? Where’s Clint?”  
Oh. Oh, right. “Yeah, about that...” he says. “I have to tell you something.”  
“What is it?” Natasha says, as Steve lets go if his hold on her.  
“Listen, I’m going to need to change the coordinates on your suit. And I have to debrief you a bit.”  
She frowns but nods, and activates her suit. Steve starts meddling with her pad, and then looks at her. He sighs and runs his hands through his hair.  
“Listen, okay?” she nods. “You sacrificed yourself. We got the Stone thanks to you. Clint took it, that’s why he’s not here. We won, we beat Thanos. But to do that, Tony had to die. You’re going to a few days after his funeral. I’m really sorry, Natasha.”  
Natasha doesn’t change his face. She just shakes her head and looks at him. “What about you?”  
Steve then reaches to his sides to find the case, and then realizes it’s probably on the top of the mountain, so he has to climb it again. He looks at the sky and closes his eyes for a few seconds.  
“I need to put the Stones back where they belong.”  
“Oh.” She says. “But you’re coming back to the same moment I do, right?” Steve doesn’t answer, just keeps looking at the sky. After a while, Natasha lets out another ‘oh’. “You’re going back to her.”  
“I just want some rest, Natasha.”  
“No, yeah. I know. I... totally get that. Steve, I want you to be happy. You know I love you.”  
“Thank you. I love you too.”  
“I hope you’re really happy, Rogers.”  
“Thanks. Thank you. Uhm. Take care of him, okay?”  
“I will.” she says, and smiles. “I’m going to go now, then. The man’s sneaky.”  
Steve chuckles, and nods, and he sees as Natasha presses on her suit and disappears.  
God, he’s gonna miss her.  
He gets up and looks at the mountain. God, why couldn’t he have hold the case tighter?

He’s on Morag now. This Stone’s the easiest one to leave behind, but he needs to hurry. Quill could appear any minute... He walks inside the temple and opens the case. Carefully, he puts it in the fake orb Bruce got for him and leaves it in the base. He sighs. Okay, there’s just one Stone left. And one more thing to do.

It’s now 1970, and he’s in Camp Leigh. If the first time was difficult to get in, this one’s worse.  
Once again, he got himself a soldier uniform and he sneaked around successfully enough to leave the case with the last Stone on the bunker it was. But it’s worse getting into Peggy’s office.  
When he finally makes it in, he grabs a pen and a sheet of paper and starts writing.  
“Sergeant Barnes, 107th. POW. HYDRA. Be careful.”  
He doesn’t sign it, but he folds it and places it on the frame of his photo resting on Peggy’s desk. He’s about to turn back and leave when he hears the door open.  
“Excuse me?” that accent says. “Who are you and why are on my desk?”  
Steve sighs.  
There’s no way he can escape this one. He might as well explain himself.  
He takes off his hat and turns back. Peggy, at his sight, opens her eyes and mouth.  
“Hey, Peggy. Can you close the door?”  
The brunette obeys, and closes the door and lowers its curtain so no one can see from the outside.  
“What are you... You’re dead.” she says. Steve chuckles.  
“Frozen, yeah... Dead, not so much. Listen, this may sound crazy but... I’m from the future. 2023. They’re going to find me in 2012 and defrost me. And then I’m going to, well. Join S.H.I.E.L.D. And then a lot of shit will happen and that’s how I end up here.”  
“But why are you...”  
“I needed to leave something that belonged here. And then I decided I could... ask a favor to a friend.” he says, taking the small paper he has written on and giving it to her.  
“Barnes? He’s...?”  
“Alive, yes. HYDRA captured him after the fall. He’s, uhm. The Winter Soldier.”  
“Barnes is The Winter Soldier?” Peggy asks, getting up from her chair.  
“Yes, but he’s not doing it because he wants to. They’ve brainwashed him. He didn’t even recognize me.” Steve explains.  
“This is... it’s all too much...” Peggy says. Steve sighs and hugs her.  
“I know. That’s why I wasn’t planning on seeing you. But faith had other plans.”  
“Oh.” Peggy simply replies.  
“Do me a favor, okay Peggy? Find him. Save him. Do what I couldn’t do, please.” Steve says, looking down at her.  
Peggy frowns, then nods. “I will, Steve. I will find Barnes and bring him home.”  
“Thanks.”  
“And I’m going to bring you, too. Give me the coordinates where they found you.”  
Steve laughs, nodding, and letting her go. “Bring me a map.”  
After explaining Peggy where he was found, he tells her he has to leave. When Peggy asks him for his new destination, he doesn’t answer.  
“Steve.” she stars. “You asked me for a favor. I’m going to ask you for another.” Steve frowns, but listens anyway. “Don’t go back for me. I don’t need that. It may hurt at the beginning, but I’m going to move on. I’m going to date, and meet my awesome husband. I’m going to have three beautiful kids whom I love and I’m going to be happy. I want you to be happy, too. You don’t need to go back to me because people expect you to.”  
“What do you mean?” Steve asks, tilting his head. Peggy smiles and places a hand on his cheek.  
“I’m pretty sure the future is much more accepting than today. You can be together now, don’t you? Anyone is going to beat you up because of who you love anymore. And if they tried, I’m sure you two would win anyway. Steve, you’ve been in love with him your whole life. Go back to him. Propose to him. Adopt a kid, a dog, whatever you want. We’re all gonna be happy, the three of us. Even Howard is. Did you know he’s going to have a kid?”  
Steve smiles, sadly. “Yes. And he’s going to be a great kid. You’ll see.”  
Peggy laughs, and strokes his cheek with her thumb.  
“Go be happy now, Steve. You deserve it.  
He nods, and takes a step back. He presses a few buttons on his sleeve and waves at Peggy. She waves back at him, and then he’s gone.

When he opens his eyes, he’s on the platform, and Natasha is in front of him, looking surprised.  
“I thought you were…” she starts, as soon as she takes her helmet off.  
“Yeah. I thought so to.” he says, and takes the suit off, along with the bracelet.  
Stepping down from the machine, he leaves it all on Bruce’s desk, and smiles at him.  
“How did she…” Bruce asks.  
“A soul for a soul.” Natasha and Steve say, in unison. She steps down too, and hugs Sam first.  
“Nice to see you again, red.” he says. She smiles at him.  
“Nice to see you too, Wilson.”  
Then she moves on to hug Bucky and they don’t say anything, but exchange some looks. Steve raises an eyebrow.  
When Natasha walks to Bruce, and by Steve, she laughs at his face, and hits his chest. Steve looks at Bucky. He has his hands on his jacket pockets, and is looking at him with a soft, soft smile.  
Steve walks up to him and stops right in front of him.  
“Hey.” Bucky greets.  
“Hey, yourself.” Steve replies. They don’t say anything, just look at each other. After what feels like eternity, Steve groans. “You know what?” he mutters, and leans forward, pressing his lips against Bucky.  
Bucky doesn’t move at first, but after what can’t have been more than a second, Steve feels the his lips move against his.  
They kiss for a while, but when Steve tries to put his tongue in his friend’s mouth, Bucky breaks apart.  
Steve frowns and looks at him, and Bucky shakes his head. “We have an audience.” he whispers, pointing with his head towards his friends. Steve turns, flushed, seeing Sam, Nat and Bruce look at them. Bruce is frowning, seemingly confused, but Sam and Nat have a funny smile.  
“Glad to see you finally got the balls.” Nat says first.  
“Yeah, we have only been waiting nine years.” Sam adds.  
“I have been waiting nine years. You were dead for five of them.” Nat says, her eyebrow up.  
“Details.” Sam waves her off, and Steve rolls his eyes.  
“Ha, ha. Very funny, guys.” Steve says, and he hears Bucky snicker behind him. “Hey, whose part are you on?”  
“I’m… very confused right now.” Bruce says. Natasha rolls her eyes, and Sam shakes his head.  
“Let’s just… let’s go back to Pepper’s, I’ll explain it.” Steve says.  
They all walk back to the house, where the rest of their friends are. At first, everybody is so happy to see Natasha that no one notices Bucky and Steve are holding hands, until they are all sitting on the living room and Bucky and Steve are too close to each other, and the blond has a hand on the brunet’s knee.  
Pepper, who has Morgan on her lap, is the first one to notice. “Wait.” she says. “You two are…?”  
“Dating?” Sam interrupts her. “Yeah.”  
“We’re not dating.” Steve says, frowning at Sam.  
“We’re not?” Bucky asks, looking at him. Steve looks at him too and swallows.  
“Well, I mean. We haven’t discussed anything yet…”  
“But they’re a thing.” Natasha says.  
“We’re definitely a thing.” Bucky concludes.  
“We’re a thing.” Steve says, nodding.  
Everybody is quietly looking at the new couple, until someone starts clapping.  
“Finally! Half the Dorah Milaje owes me like, a hundred bucks.” Shuri says.  
“Owes us.” T’Challa says, looking at her.  
“Us. Sure.” she smiles, nodding at her brother.  
“When did this happen?” Scott asks, and Bucky shrugs.  
“Like… half an hour ago.” he answers.  
“You just decided you liked each other half an hour ago?” Clint asks.  
“Oh, believe me, they didn’t.” Wanda says, rolling her eyes.  
“What?” Steve asks, frowning at her.  
“Look! I try not to read your minds, but sometimes, you’re… you’re too loud.” she excuses herself, putting her hands up.  
Steve sighs, shaking his head, and looks around the room.  
“Listen, guys. This was… this was late. It should have happened a long time ago.”  
“Yeah, like, 1930 something. But you know. Homophobia. Jail. Death. All that stuff.” Bucky says. Steve punches his arm. “Ouch.”  
Steve rolls his eyes, because he knows it didn’t hurt him, and continues. “This is the first time Bucky and I get to be together without any imminent threat coming for us. So, we’re going to take the bull by its horns. That’s why, from now on, Sam is going to be Captain America.”  
Sam, who was drinking at the moment Steve said so, choked with the water, and started coughing. Natasha shook her head and patted him on the back, rolling her eyes.  
When Sam was finally able to breathe again, he took a deep one, and looked at Steve.  
“What?” he simply said.  
“You know, you’re the guy I trust the most.” Steve said, ignoring the little ‘hey’ Bucky let out. “It has to be you, pal.”  
Sam frowned, and looked at Nat, who smiled at him. Then he looked at the rest of them room, also smiling, and finally, at Steve.  
“Fine. I’ll do it. A flying Captain America must be so cool, mustn’t he?” he smiled. Steve smiled back at him, and nodded.  
“And you?” Nat asked. “What are you going to do?”  
Steve looked at Bucky, who had taken his hand and was now playing with his fingers. “Well, we’ve always wanted to see the Great Canyon, haven’t we?” Bucky looks up at him and smiles, then nods. “So we’ll probably do that.”  
“You can take one of Tony’s planes, if you want.” Pepper suggests. Steve shakes his head.  
“Thanks, Pepper, but not this time. I think it’s time for us to get back to normal… as normal as we can get.”

Later that day, Pepper gives Steve one of Tony’s cars (“It’s just me and Morgan now, and we have Happy. We don’t need that many cars. You can keep it, if you want.”) and they drive back to the city.  
It’s just them two in the car, and Steve drives them with one hand, while the other is holding Bucky’s metal arm on top of the gear lever. From time to time, he takes it to his lips and kisses it, making Bucky rolls his eyes.  
“Hey, I just had a thought.” Bucky says, when they’re halfway through the trip. “Is all my stuff still in Wakanda?” he asks.  
“No, I think I have some on my apartment. But if it’s clothes you’re worried about, you can wear mine. They’ll fit. And we can go shopping tomorrow.”  
“Yeah. Okay. But.”  
“But?”  
“We have a car now. What do you say we drive to the Great Canyon?”  
“Drive? You want to drive to Colorado?”  
“Yes! We can drive all day, and sleep in motels, and eat in B&Bs.”  
“Wait. Let me get this straight. You spend two years on the run, two cryogenized, five dead… and the first thing you want to do is drive to Colorado?”  
“Well, that’s not exactly the first thing…” he whispers, and Steve flushes. He knows what Bucky means. Are they ready for that? “Come on, Steve! It’ll be fun!”  
Steve laughs and shakes his head. “Yeah. Okay, Buck. We’ll do it.”  
Bucky smiles, and leans to kiss Steve’s cheek. “I love you.”  
Steve smiles too, and looks at the brunet. His eyes are shining, and everything feels so good for once, Steve wants to pause this moment and live in it forever.  
“I love you too, Buck.”

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me on twitter (@dragosteaseb) or tumblr (@stuckylovers)!


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